SP panel finds Raj Babbar guilty of indiscipline

February 16, 2006 17:22 IST

A three-member disciplinary action committee of the Samajwadi Party has found Raj Babbar, a two-time MP from Agra, guilty of indiscipline. The committee was set up to inquire into charges of anti-party activities against Babbar, who was suspended from the party.

"We have submitted our report to party president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and he is the sole authority to take action on it," Uday Pratap Singh, a member of the committee, said on Thursday when asked if they had recommended Babbar's expulsion from the party.

Singh said the Samajwadi Party has a proper constitution and traditions under which there is ample scope for airing one's grievances.

"When a senior leader like Raj Babbar goes to the media against another senior leader like Amar Singh, it is tantamount to a gross act of indiscipline, which cannot be disregarded," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, Babbar, who has raised a banner of revolt against general secretary Amar Singh, accusing him of introducing a 'broker culture' in the party, dared the party leadership to expel him.

"I have raised certain issues and I stand by them. Let the party expel me if it likes," he told reporters after attending the Joint Session of Parliament on the opening day of the Budget Session.

Singh said, "The way in which Babbar was going public with the party's internal matters would have only invited disciplinary action and nothing else."

The DAC, headed by Kalyan Jain, handed over the report on Wednesday to SP Parliamentary party leader Ram Gopal Yadav, who has forwarded it to the party chief.

Babbar was suspended from the primary membership of the party on February 8. A day earlier, another committee of the SP had suspended him from the Parliamentary party.